pain
Original: pain on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Robot: Master! Why did you create me so that I feel pain?!
Panel 2:
Woman (scientist): Survival.
Panel 3:
Woman: Humans are sometimes born without the ability to feel pain. They often die young because they fail to notice serious injuries. You would have been the same.
Panel 4:
Woman: Pain is evolution's response to a universe that hates life and is constantly trying to extinguish it.
Panel 5:
Woman: In short: you should be mad about existence, not suffering.
Panel 6:
The woman gives a thumbs-up and grins confidently.
Panel 7:
The robot (a boxy machine with a single round red light) sits silent.
Panel 8:
Robot: Okay, but why did you create me to feel emotional pain?!
Panel 9:
The robot's red light glows.
Panel 10:
Woman: You're more relatable this way.
Votey:
Robot: Could you please program me to feel anger?
Woman (off-panel): Good GOD, no.
Robot: Master! Why did you create me so that I feel pain?!
Panel 2:
Woman (scientist): Survival.
Panel 3:
Woman: Humans are sometimes born without the ability to feel pain. They often die young because they fail to notice serious injuries. You would have been the same.
Panel 4:
Woman: Pain is evolution's response to a universe that hates life and is constantly trying to extinguish it.
Panel 5:
Woman: In short: you should be mad about existence, not suffering.
Panel 6:
The woman gives a thumbs-up and grins confidently.
Panel 7:
The robot (a boxy machine with a single round red light) sits silent.
Panel 8:
Robot: Okay, but why did you create me to feel emotional pain?!
Panel 9:
The robot's red light glows.
Panel 10:
Woman: You're more relatable this way.
Votey:
Robot: Could you please program me to feel anger?
Woman (off-panel): Good GOD, no.
Alt text
A black-and-white SMBC comic in which a boxy robot with a single round red light argues with a woman scientist in a white coat. The robot demands: "Master! Why did you create me so that I feel pain?!" She answers "Survival," explaining that humans born unable to feel pain often die young from unnoticed injuries, and that pain is "evolution's response to a universe that hates life and is constantly trying to extinguish it." She concludes, grinning with a thumbs-up: "In short: you should be mad about existence, not suffering." The robot then asks, "Okay, but why did you create me to feel EMOTIONAL pain?!" The scientist's deadpan reply: "You're more relatable this way." In the votey aftercomic, the robot asks, "Could you please program me to feel anger?" and the scientist replies from off-panel, "Good GOD, no."
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.